Many individuals start a business in the field they have experience in or where they feel there is an unmet customer demand. While they may have expertise in the business niche, which will give them an edge over the existing businesses, there are many other aspects of running a business. These include setting up an office or retail outlet, recruiting and retaining suitable employees, marketing and keeping financial, accounting records. Hence business owners often hire a business coach who will help them with their new business or improve their existing business. They would like to find out the cost of choosing a business coach, so that they can make a suitable decision. Some of the factors which affect the fees charged by a business coach are discussed below.
Table of Contents
Profile
The business coach is usually someone who has started his own business and has experience in handling all aspects of the business. In some cases, the business coach may have sold his existing business and is devoting his time only to business coaching. In other cases, a business owner is offering business coaching as a consultancy service. The fees charged will depend on the number of years of experience of the business coach. Typically experienced business coaches will charge more for their services, since they can offer better advice to the business owner.
Success
Another aspect which is considered is how successful the business coach is. Some business coaches may be extremely successful business owners who have sold very large businesses, so more business owners are likely to be interested in their services. Hence these business coaches are charging more. In other cases, the business coach has high profile and very successful clients, who have increased their sales and profits rapidly after using the advice which is being provided by the coach. More people are likely to use these well established coaches, whose fees will be higher.
Expertise
For some businesses like retail stores, there are a large number of business coaches who have expertise in these businesses, so the fees will be less. In other cases, especially hitech electronics, there are few business coaches, who understand the technology involved. So it is difficult to find specialized business coaches in some high tech sectors, and these coaches will also charge higher fees, Similarly high fees are usually paid for advice in industry sectors where the profit margins will be higher. Business coaches with less experience in providing coaching services will often charge lower fees, to get more clients initially.
Terms
While a majority of the business coaches are charging a fee which is linked to the time they spend in understanding the business, providing suitable advice, in some cases, the fees are linked to business growth or increase in profit. Smaller businesses and startups are often linking the fees to the results or improvement in profit, since they cannot afford to pay more without any result. Business coaches with only a few clients may also agree to work with companies which are linking fees to business performance improvement.
